12 JULY, 2010 – SOUTH AFRICA, WORLD CUP FINAL JOHANNESBURG

Last night was a tough defeat for the Dutch national soccer team as they lost the final to Spain bringing their number of finals losses to 3 in the history of the World Cup. I made a strong attempt to meet my cousin, Aeisso, at the game given he flew down from Holland to see the match with some friends. He already had a ticket so by the time my plane landed from Nairobi at 12 noon and after spending a few hours at the airport organizing myself (emails, money changed, airline flights amended) I took a small bus down to Soccer Stadium outside Johannesburg. The crowd was big heading into the stadium despite it being only close to 5PM and a full 3 and ½ hours from the time the game would start. I felt like there was a chance for me to get a ticket outside the stadium and committed to stay until the game started to see how things shook out.

Again there was a sea of orange coming into the stadium. I began seeing the same people over and over again who wanted to see the game. We all hung our hats at Gate H and watched the minutes tick down to the open of the match. Tickets were scarce and when I could overhear a conversation the prices were well above $1,000 apiece. The time passed and the night grew colder until by 8:15PM the prices were not coming down below $1,000 each. I, along with plenty of Germans, Italians and South Americans I got to know, all left to find a TV. I drove back to Henk’s house in Pretoria and watched the undesired outcome of the match.